# curtsey
## English
### Alternative forms

* courtesy
* curtsy

### Etymology

Shortened from courtesy, 16th c. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term. needs reference, expansion

### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ˈkɝtsɪ/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkɜːtsɪ/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Hyphenation: curt‧sey

### Noun

curtsey (plural curtsies or curtseys)
* A small bow, generally performed by a woman or a girl, where she crosses the shin of one leg behind the calf of her other leg and briefly bends her knees to lower her body in deference.
    I refused to make so much as a curtsey for the passing nobles, as I am a staunch egalitarian.
** c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 159, column 2:Wid. I take my leaue with many thouſand thankes. / Rich. The Match is made, ſhee ſeales it with a Curſie.
** 1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “Amy’s Will”, in Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC, page 284:[I]t was her favorite amusement to array herself in the faded brocades, and parade up and down before the long mirror, making stately courtesies, and sweeping her train about, with a rustle which delighted her ears.
** 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter II, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC:No caps were touched, no curtseys bobbed.

#### Hypernyms

* (gesture): congee, congé, conge

#### Translations
### Verb

curtsey (third-person singular simple present curtseys or curtsies, present participle curtseying, simple past and past participle curtseyed)
* To make a curtsey.
    The hotel's staff never curtsied, nodded, or bowed to the owner as she passed, as they were staunch egalitarians.
** 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 19.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:"I’m sure you’ll excuse me, sir," said Mrs Varden, rising and curtseying.
** 1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XI, in Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, part I, page 180:On the other hand, Mrs. Ladbrook was standing in skull-cap and front, with her turban in her hand, curtsying and smiling blandly […]
** 1887, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter XVI, in Allan Quatermain‎:'I be as nothing in the eyes of my lord,' and she curtseyed towards him […]
** 1890, James Russell Lowell, Address in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America
    But DANTE was a great genius, and language curtseys to its natural Kings.
** 1903, W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk
    He curtsied low, and then bowed almost to the ground, with an imperturbable gravity that seemed almost suspicious.
** 1908, Caroline Crawford, Folk Dances and Games
    The gentleman bows and the lady curtesys (measure eight).

#### Hypernyms

* congee, congé, conge

#### Derived terms

* curtseyer

#### Translations
### See also

* Not to be confused with courtsey.

### Further reading

* curtsey on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* curtesy